How to make your first edit to OpenStreetMap in 15 minutes

A guide published on GitHub Pages by the author of the Website Wizard JOSM plugin walks readers through a first contribution to OpenStreetMap (OSM) in under fifteen minutes. It is written for a technically minded audience — the page was prepared for readers arriving from Hacker News — and points anyone wanting a simpler route to StreetComplete on Android or Go Map!! on iOS.

The task is small but useful: adding an official website tag to a nearby shop or amenity. The author argues that this is the best place to start, because a website tag makes the remaining data much easier to determine — an official site almost always lists the phone number, opening hours and email, which can then be added as separate OSM tags.

The workflow, step by step

The process uses JOSM, the desktop Java editor for OSM, which is around 365 MB to download. After creating and confirming a free OSM account, the user opens the download dialog, selects an area of interest no larger than a few city blocks and pulls in the current data. A filter query — name=* ((amenity=* "addr:housenumber"=*) | shop=*) -website=* -"contact:website"=* — narrows the map to shops and amenities that still lack a website, whether directly or under a contact tag.

With the filter applied, the Website Wizard plugin is installed from JOSM's plugin list. Selecting a place and pressing Search opens a DuckDuckGo query that combines the user's chosen search prefix — the neighbourhood or city — with the name of the place.

Judging what counts as official

The guide sets a clear rule for what may be added: an official website is one published by the place itself, usually on a personalised domain such as the cafe's own site. Social media profiles, review sites and business directories do not qualify; they belong under other tags, such as contact:facebook. When in doubt, the advice is not to use the result at all. The URL goes into the Website URL field, and a mistake can be undone with Ctrl+Z.

Finally the changeset is uploaded with a short comment — for example, a note that websites were added to shops and amenities in a given city — and the data source is marked as survey, reflecting that the information comes from local knowledge rather than an imported dataset. A browser window opens for OSM authentication, and the user authorises JOSM to publish the changeset.

Why small edits add up

The author reports adding 66 website tags in one changeset covering Seattle's Wallingford neighbourhood, and notes that the United States alone has more than a million shops. Every tag entered in OSM is picked up by dozens of free services built on the map data. The guide suggests following up by filtering for places that have a website but no phone number, since that information can be read straight off the site.